The Last Few
by TheFlyingWren
Summary: It's 2015 and the world has ended. The influenza breezed though the world killing billions and leaving very few humans behind. When the Cullen vampires return to Forks to find one of the last few humans hiding in their home, will they get rid of her or help this fragile damaged girl? Can you find happiness even after an apocalypse?
1. Chapter 1

EPOV

Desolate.

There was nothing.

The world was a very different place from what it had been just a few short years ago. My family and I had been watching from the sidelines as the world dwindled like the embers of a fire. It was only a matter of time before the embers that kept this world alive went out entirely.

My family had been living in Michigan when the first reported cases of the EU Influenza virus started cropping up. Within days of the first few reports the hospitals became swamped with the sick. There was not that many sick to start with, but the scare made put everyone on edge. Hospitals filled with the sick and the healthy and within days the virus spread from the ill to the healthy. Carlisle was one of the few doctors that managed to stay working full time because he couldn't catch the Virus.

Three weeks after the first reported cases cropped up they imposed a nationwide quarantine, absolutely no air travel was allowed. Only several were dead at this point but the panic was there.

One day Carlisle came home with the news that there had been a local case of the EU Virus. They had died earlier that day.

'It's like they're being eaten from the inside. The pain and sheer terror seems to be enough to send them off the edge. I have never seen something so horrific. If this continues to spread this could be it. Maybe it is cleansing of the world all over again. We don't know how its being spread. It could be air born or touch or even through animals. This could really be it for the human race' Carlisle told us in a hollow voice after seeing the first patient die. We could all recognise the desperation in his voice.

Months passed hundreds dead. Within six months over eighty percent of the hospital staff was ill or already dead. The ill were told to just stay in their homes because the hospital was just to full and couldn't cope with any more people. Carlisle started living at the hospital all the time, without the need to sleep he thought he would be of more use there. With the state of panic that the world was quickly falling into no one really noticed that he never left, never ate or never slept.

Most of the family visited Carlisle at the hospital regularly to help a hand of just to be some company so he wouldn't go stir crazy. I just couldn't find it in myself to go there though. It was scarily similar to how it was in my human life and I couldn't take the vicious assaults from my memory. Carlisle told us that it took only hours after the symptoms appeared for the patient to die and no body had recovered once they had shown any symptoms. Esme started to frequent the hospital as well, giving aide wherever she could. Doctors didn't care where they got help aslong as they got it. I would have gone to the hospital to help more because I held three different medical degree's under my belt but everyone in that town thought I was a seventeen year old high school student, that and the whole I'm-a-giant-coward thing.

Every night the TV reports stated the same thing. That the death toll was increasing. Everyone could see the emotional toll that this was taking on Carlisle. We had decided to make some new vampires but after making five new ones, Carlisle just couldn't handle making any more in such a short period of time. It was beginning to threaten his restraint. They stayed with us past their newborn stages but the house was getting very crowded so they all eventually went on their own way leaving us the way we were before the pandemic.

For myself watching the Virus sweep through the world was hard, It brought up way to many blurry memories from my human days. Of my death. I had been dying of the Spanish Influenza when Carlisle found and changed me. The memories that had blurred to nothing long ago came back at full force watching the humans slowly fade to nothing.

There was a huge difference between this pandemic and the one back in 1918, and that was the death toll. There was still so many people left standing at the end the horror that swept through the world in the 1900's.

This time, the humans just didn't stop dying. We estimated that there was probably only a few hundred humans left in the entire world. Two years after the virus broke out there was nobody left. The towns had been ransacked and were full of bodies, the smell was overpowering, thankfully we didn't have to breathe so the smell didn't affect us to badly. Shops had been looted by what little survivors there were. Smashed in windows and empty shelves. Deliveries to the food stores had stopped over a year ago. The whole world really was a mess.

It was like one of those apocalypse films. It was truly horrifying to watch. There was shortages of gas and electric. Our abilities meant that we were able to set up generators and gather as much fuel as we could, because I think us Cullen's would be nothing without our cars.

Eventually after a several months after the first cases appeared Carlisle came back from the hospital, declaring in a desolate voice that there was nobody left. No doctors, nurses or patients were alive. It was only him. The news weighed heavy on his shoulders. He had stayed there until the very end, until the last person died.

* * *

Eventually we started living our life in some semblance. We didn't work or go to school though. We stayed as a family in the house. Sometimes we went out to gather supplies but we didn't really need much. Usually it was just fuel for the generators or cars we needed. The animal population was dwindling, so we had to be careful with how much we hunted.

Two years. We stayed in that sober house for six years after the virus first broke out. It was like a dark cloud had descended over our lives. Carlisle missed working. He missed helping humans. I think everyone one missed human interaction in some part. We had became stuck in our new, more depressing ways over the years.

We had all been getting cabin fever in Michigan. We had to find ways to entertain ourselves and after a while there just wasn't any books left to read or games to play. What with no new books or TV shows coming out we would eventually run out of entertainment. that Esme declared that she wanted to relocate to another one of our houses. It didn't take long at all for us all to agree and decided to move back to the small town of Forks. We loaded up the cars, getting ready for the trip.

Emmett and I had decided to go out on a scavenge before we left. We needed fuel and a few other small items. We decide to run. It was better than driving. We stopped quickly to hunt some food first though.

'I wish there were more grizzlies around. There just seems to be less now,' Emmett griped as he finished the deer that he had caught.

'It's because the humans have started to eat the bears in their desperation for food.'

'Yeh, but Grizzlies are mine!' Emmett whines like a child 'These deer are no fight at all!'

'But are grizzlies really a fight? We are vampires Emmett.'

'Well if you provoke the bear its better than taking down a pussy deer!'

I just rolled my eyes. Emmett was getting restless here. Hopefully Forks will be better for him.

'Okay! I can't eat any more of this pussy shit, lets go get some fuel!' Emmett declared, brushing the dirt off his clothes.

I finished off the rabbit I was eating and joined Emmett for a casual run to near the town.

The few people that were left had started hoarding goods. There was one group in town that had most of their stuff stored in a few warehouses. It was easy enough to run in and grab what we needed.

As we came near the town I was shocked. It was bad the last time I saw it, but it had been a year since I had been here. The smell of the dead filled my nose. It was so strong that I felt like gagging. And I'm already dead. All the shop windows were smashed in, things stolen. There had clearly been a riot of some sort that was long over. Cars were dotted everywhere yet there wasn't a living person in sight. It was silent and still. Last time we had been here there was still a few lone survivors walking around the desolate streets.

'I think we should find the stuff and go, Ed, there's fires around and I don't want to be around when they spread,' Emmett advised, I agreed with him entirely. I led us in the direction of the Storage units, hoping that someone had stored fuel in one of them.

We broke the locks with our bare hands and looked in each storage unit one by one, we would search the warehouses later. There was defiantly a mixed lot with the storage units. Some held just useless family junk, others had body after body in them. Like a makeshift grave. Emmett was disgusted and frankly so was I.

Finally after a good forty minutes of searching we found some gasoline canisters. Em grabbed them and ran back to the car with them, returning in record time. We opened a few more units, but decided that we had enough to get us to Forks and started walking back to the Jeep, trying to not pay attention to the chaos and destruction around us. I really hoped Forks wouldn't be like this.

'Hold up a sec,' Emmett threw his hand out to stop me and looked pointedly toward the large garage that was near us.

'you want to go in?' I asked. Emmett nodded.

'I wanna get some bits for my Rose. She'll love some new equipment, help me carry some stuff,'

I gestured for Emmett to lead the way. He grinned and walked briskly to the garage. We were in luck it appeared, there wasn't any bodies. Just car parts and a few old dusty cars.

'This is a gold mine!' Emmett declared, thrusting a few items in my arms. He was grinning like a little kid. Probably because he knew he would get laid for getting Rose these parts. Well that's what his mind was saying at least.

It took a good few trips to the car to get all the things Emmett wanted out the garage, but in no time we were packed up and driving home.

Everyone was already waiting in the cars when we got back. They had packed up the items that we needed in moments.

'How do we even know that the house in Forks will still be there?' Rosalie asked, after running up to Emmett for a hug.

'It was in the middle of nowhere babe. Hopefully it will be totally untouched.' Emmett soothed quietly. He didn't want Esme to hear, she would hate it if one of her homes that she worked so hard on was damaged.

'I guess there's one way to find out,' I told them.

'Oh by the way babe, go look in the back of the car, I got you something,' Emmett declared. Rose went over for a look.

I walked over to my Volvo. I would be driving alone. The back seat of my beloved motor vehicle was full of clothing bags, courtesy of Alice. You would think what with the world ending that she wouldn't be so strict on fashion any any more but that was hardly the case, she still insisted on dressing the entire family and if she could make us she would get us to have several outfit changes a day. It wasn't like there was any humans left to impress any more.

I heard Rose little shriek of happiness as she saw what Emmett had found for her. That girl really was car mad. After her and Emmett had a quick impromptu make out session which I did my best to ignore we were all in our cars and driving away from our home, not knowing what was waiting for us.

We didn't make many stops, only when we needed to refuel and then It was quick. With our speed driving and with how empty the roads were we made the trip in a fraction of time that any human would have. Before we knew it we were pulling up at the Forks house. I got out of the Volvo, happy to stretch my legs, when the smell hit me like a tidal wave. Human, fresh, sweet. It was so glorious, like strawberries and freesia. I was instantly enthralled.

There was a human. And they were in our house. Everyone looked at each other. Lost for words. Someone had decided to squat in out house. Jasper looked pissed.

'Well whoever is making that stench should know that this is our house,' Jasper told us. Rosalie nodded.

'Lets not be hasty,' Carlisle started but Rose was already running into the house. We heard a crash and we all swiftly followed. I wasn't prepared for the sight that met me though. It was a girl, sitting on her butt, clearly having fallen down with a pissed off Rose towering over her.

She was thin, scarily so. Long dirty brown hair, but her eyes were the richest brown that I had ever seen in my life. She was small, fragile and smelt amazing.

A quick glance around told me that she had been living here a while. There was a nest of blankets that she clearly slept in.

'Hello,' Esme greeted. Waling up to the girl who scrabbled to her feet. She looked terrified. What had happened to this girl? 'I'm Esme, we're not going to hurt you, we just want to know who you are,' She spoke like she was talking to a small scared child which this girl basically was.

She had clearly been abused and was starving. What the hell had happened to this girl?

Had humanity really gotten that bad?

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	2. Chapter 2

'I promise we won't hurt you,' Esme Told the girl in her best soothing voice. She just stayed there shivering violently. A look of pure terror on her face.

Esme began to approach her and she moved away so violently scuttling backwards.

'Stay away!' She cried. He voice was hoarse and scratchy. It sounded like she hadn't used her vocal chords in a long time.

'We're not going to hurt you,' Esme repeated. The girl just shook her head quickly.

'How do I know that you're not infected?' She asked.

We all looked at each other.

Naturally she would think that we were infected. Wouldn't that be every humans primary though now? The Virus was everything to them, and if a human lived this long they must have been determined to keep themselves alive.

'I'm a doctor,' Carlisle announced. 'We are immune I guess you can say, are you the same?' He asked.

'I've never had the virus,'

'Neither have any of us,' Carlisle informed her. The girls lips were turning slightly blue. I had no idea why, that was clearly a bad sign and it sent up the relevant warning lights in my brain but I couldn't fathom what was causing it.

_She's to scared. It's Emmett she's most afraid of us and us guys. _Jasper thought. I looked at him. He was staring at the girl.

'Why don't we go set up the generators?' I suggested. Jasper nodded. Esme walked up to the girl who flinched in terror at her approach. She would feel better once all us men were out of the room.

One thing was clear – she was an innocent. Scared and alone. She needed someone to look after her. Esme was pretty much chomping at the bit to help this girl.

I grabbed Emmett by the collar and dragged him, despite his protests, out the room. Carlisle got the message because he followed as well.

We all went to the cars and pulled out the gas canisters for the generators.

_So thin, she's not healthy. What if she has the Virus? She doesn't have any of the symptoms..._

'She would have died by now Carlisle if it really was the Virus,' I answered his unspoken question.

Carrying the generators like they were light as a feather, I allowed my mind to wonder during the menial task and listened in to the conversation happening just in the front room.

'Are you cold dear?' Esme asked quietly. Alice was already on her way out to our convoy of cars to grab a few blankets.

_Humans need to stay warm, Washington is cold. When we lived here last everyone wore thick clothes... She must have other human needs... what else do humans need? How long has she survived out here on her own? _Alice's thoughts were going into overdrive.

It was winter, to regular humans it must have been frightfully cold, my family never felt any of the changing temperatures though.

Carlisle walked up to me, running his hand through his hair 'Get the heating up, I know we don't need it, but I think we can spare the fuel for this girl. She looks like she's been through the wars, I want her fully checked over. She doesn't look to healthy.' he had instantly switched to doctor mode. He had found another human being and it was his first instinct to care for them. Especially since she was so small and fragile. I think seeing her tugged on most of my families heart strings. Carlisle had a worry lines etched on his face and I could hear him going over most of his medical training in his mind, trying to decide what applied to the girl.

We worked at vampire speed to get the heating in the house working. We had never ran it before, why would we need to? We're vampires, but this was clearly a special occasion.

It wasn't long before the house was filling with warmth. I would probably have to do another fuel run with Emmett soon, but for some reason I didn't seem to mind as much.

When we returned to the house and started actually walking through it and looking around I noticed that she hadn't really opened the house. There was still white sheets over all our furniture and she had only been using one room.

'We don't care that you're here, we'll happily help you. Just tell us your name,' Alice asked.

'B-Bella,' the girl stuttered.

I could tell that Esme was grinning without even looking at her.

_She's such a pretty girl, she's practically a baby! Bella... such a beautiful name... suits her._

'Well Bella, would you like a shower? I think Emmett's got the generators working.

'Hot water?' She asked in a timid voice.

'Yeh, we always use generators, go have one, we'll talk after,' The girl let out a small yelp of fright as Esme tried to go near her.

_The poor thing is shaking like a leaf!_ Esme thought as she led her to the bathroom without going anywhere near her.

_What should I dress her in? I bet she would look good in the Grey skirts I left here. Oh! What about the Jimmy choos? Oh! This is going to be so fun! She's going to be family!_

'What do you mean Alice?' I asked in my normal voice, knowing that she would hear me.

_Nothing Edward... All will reveal in time it will..._ She thought in her best yoda impression. I smiled. Alice seemed to be obsessed with Yoda of late, claiming that she loved him because she could relate to him (They are both clearly vertically challenged)

Esme stayed upstairs to help the frail girl while the rest of the family convened in the living room. We spoke while removing the white sheets off of the furniture.

_I am not letting her leave. We're helping her, tell them Edward!_ I smiled at the thoughts Esme directed to me.

'Well we've never been in a situation like this, we should help her,' Carlisle started.

'This is our home Carlisle!' Rose thundered, 'Our sanctuary! We can't have some human gallivanting around!'

'Rose!' Emmett was clearly shocked at his wife's reaction.

She turned to look at him, her face livid. 'Don't 'Rose' me Emmett! Its the truth!'

'Well what would _you _propose we do?' I asked, raising my eyebrows.

'Make her find somewhere else, she can hovel up in any number of houses, why does she have to pick our home?'

'You haven't seen what its like out there, Rose,' Emmett told her quietly.

'I don't give a flying Fuck!' She announces, waving her hands in the air.

I don't know why, but hearing Rosalie talk about the girl that way made me snap.

'Rose. Shut it! How can you be such a heartless bitch?' several members of the family gasped slightly at my declaration. 'Up there is a scared, small girl. You should have compassion and want to help her, and what's your first though? To send her out there!' I pointed in the direction of the door. 'You haven't seen what's out there, Bastards roam the street, doing whatever the want, to get whatever they want. Bastards like _Royce_!' Rose visibly flinched at the name. She appeared to shrink in on herself slightly. 'You want to send a small frightened girl to what will probably be a death just like yours? You really are a bitch if so,'

Before Rose could even reply, Alice suddenly zoned out, we all knew what that meant. A vision. Then, Without warning she squealed happily.

'She's staying!' She declared 'She'll be with us for a while! Like decades! I can see it! But the thing is... she's hurt. She needs a lot of help – and we'll give it her!'

everyone voiced their agreement, well everyone but rose, who stood there quietly staring at the floor, she knew better than to argue with Alice.

'Now, Boys, you clear the rooms and make them liveable again! I've got to go get Bella dressed! She's going to finish in the shower any minute!' We all went about our assigned tasks without question.

_Surely she'll need more supplies and stuff, like don't girls need tampons and things? Better leave that stuff to Alice, but what if we need to do a town run? _Emmett though. None of his thoughts were on his wife at that moment, just the girl upstairs.

By the time we had cleared all the sheets and got the curtains open making the house look almost normal Alice had been upstairs for a while and from what I could hear, the girl was still to terrified to let anyone near her, she would only let Esme near her.

'Carlisle!' Alice called rushing into the room, a worried look on her dace 'She's hurt! Look at her!'

Bella was still upstairs and Esme was doing her very best to coax her out.

'They don't bite Bella, we just want to help you,' She soothed.

'Can't I just stay up here?' She whispered, clearly not wanting us to hear. She didn't have any idea that we had super hearing.

It took Esme a good half an hour but she managed to convince the girl to come downstairs and meet the family.

Alice had stuck her in a long grey flowing skirt, black vest top, and one of my green dress shirts.

'Hell Bella, I'm Carlisle and this is my family. You've met my wife Esme, and these are my children, Edward, Alice, Emmett, Jasper and Rosalie,' He pointed to each of us in turn. Bella's eyes darted between all of us. She flinched slightly when her gaze fell on Emmett.

'none of us are infected, we're perfectly safe, we're not going to hurt you,' Jasper told her.

Alice came up behind Bella and draped a blanket over her shoulders. The movement was small but Bella flinched in pain, her hand going up to clutch her ribs.

_She's in pain. Quite a bit actually._ Jasper thought.

Carlisle walked up to Bella. 'What's wrong?' He asked.

'I fell down a week or so ago, my ribs hurt,' She whispered.

_She's shy, doesn't like attention. Man she quite pretty isn't she?_ Jasper thought. I nodded without even thinking about it.

'Will you let me look?' Carlisle asked. 'I'm a doctor, I can help,'

'Later,' She conceded quietly. 'First I have a question for all of you,' She looked round at us.

'Why don't we sit down before we talk?' Esme suggested. Bella nodded and sat on the sofa, wrapping the blanket around her tighter.

'You guys are a family right? How did all of you manage to escape the virus without even a scratch? You all look perfectly healthy to me.' Her voice was small and timid.

'I guess my family was just lucky, I honestly don't think I can give you any other explanation that just that,' Carlisle told her.

It wasn't like we were just going to announce that we were members of the living dead and that is how we survived through the Virus.

'Oh,'

'What happened to you, may I ask. Why did you end up living here? This place is very far out,'

'Well,' She shifted uncomfortably. 'I was living in the woods, this was around six months ago. I couldn't stay near the town, there are survivors there, lets just say its not pretty, they've almost turned feral. I found this place one day and I knew that no-one came this way so I just settled down after a while.'

'Well you're welcome to stay here for as long as you need,' Esme told her. 'I've had the boys open up the whole house so you can take one of the guest rooms. It'll be perfectly warm now that the generators are working the heating,'

Bella's face looked slightly confused.

'It's like you guys live in your own little bubble, you've hardly been affected by the Virus. You're all healthy, you have electricity, cars, heating. How on earth did you manage it? The worlds brutal out there!'

'We stuck together Miss Bella,' It was Jasper that spoke. Bella nodded.

'That always seems to work, the few left in town have what seems to be a pack mentality, they work stick together.'

'Why didn't you stay with a group then?' Jazz asked. 's

'They're brutal. I didn't want to stay around and play witness, part or victim to the abuse, beatings and rapes,' She told us bluntly.

I looked over at Rose, who was looking thoroughly scolded. Esme went and sat next to Bella, putting an arm around her.

'What do you mean abuse, beatings and rapes?' Esme asked in a strained voice.

'Like I said, they're feral, they take what they want with no concern for anyone else.' She told us in a detached voice.

Her eyelids dropped slightly.

'Are you tired dear?' Esme asked.

_Carry her Edward. Put her in your room, say its the guest room. Pick her up because she's clumsy. Do it now!_ Alice thought in a demanding tone.

'I'll show you the guest room, It's a lot better than sleeping down here, I told her, holding my hand out, I'm Edward by the way,' I grinned at her.

She didn't take my hand, opting to stand up on her own 'Esme told me who all of you were...' She didn't finish her sentence because the moment she stood up she swayed and fell down. With my reflexes I managed to catch her easily.

'What's wrong with her?' I asked.

'Take her up, I'll have a look at her,' I followed Carlisle orders and ran her up to my room and placed her on my bed. I never wanted a bed, but Esme insisted it looked good.

I laid her down and Carlisle was instantly there with his doctors kit. It was his old one Esme gave him years ago. Even though we assumed most humans dead he just couldn't let go of it.

He went to work shining a pen torch into her eyes and checking all of her reflexes.

It didn't take long for Carlisle to reach a verdict.

'She's malnourished. Badly. She's clearly not been eating right. Look at her ribs, He lifted her shirt up and I could see each one of her ribs clearly defined. She was seriously a bag of bones!

'Is there any food here?' I asked.

'None. You're brothers searched. She's clearly starving herself,'

'Why hasn't she gone into the town?'

'We'll ask her that once we wake up, she needs a lot of care, vitamins, the right foods. Take a look.' He pointed towards her eyes and sure enough they were pale and dry. That along with the loss of weight indicated a serious problem.

'What about her reflexes?' I asked.

'Almost non-existent. Her muscles are fading away. She clearly hasn't ate a full meal since the start of the Virus outbreak. He sadly looked at her. 'This world we live in now is deadly to humans. If she goes on much longer like this she'll die,'

'We can get her help though right?' I didn't like the idea of this brunette beauty fading away in front of me.

'We'll help here, with a family of vampires there's no way she'll want for anything,'

A light snore brought our attention back to Bella, who had rolled onto her side and was clearly content wrapped up in the blanket.

'She's lucky she didn't get hypothermia with the temperature right now. We'll have to keep the heating on at all times. We'll make another run for fuel soon so we can keep them going,' He mused.

'I'll talk to Jasper about it. Also give us a list of anything that she could possible need. We can try and find some while we're there,'

'She's a beautiful girl. I wonder how old she is. She looks like a baby to me... she kind of reminds me of you,' Carlisle mused out loud.

'Me?' I asked

'Yes, in 1918 when I found you in that hospital. She's got the same light in her eyes, the same passion to lie that you had. You also seemed so fragile and vulnerable. Just like she does now.'

'Well now it's my turn to look after someone,' I decided.

Carlisle smiled at my declaration. 'Go find you're brothers then. You need to make another run,'

**Do you like?! Reviews mean quicker updates! I'm having major wrist surgery in two weeks so if I write lots in the next few days I'll have the chapters to post. The more reviews the quicker I post!**

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	3. Chapter 3

**I changed the first two chaps a bit! Go back and re-read the if you haven't! XOX**

**EPOV**

Emmett and I were to go on another run. Just for the excess fuel we needed. Bella was still fast asleep upstairs. Jasper had managed to find us a map of the town from somewhere, so we would know where to look for fuel and other supplies.

'Focus on getting fuel, we're going to need it a lot in the next few weeks if we intend to keep the hose warm,' Jasper informed us as we poured over the map. We had locked ourselves away in the den while we planned our strategic endeavour. We were sitting around the table looking at the papers in front of us.

'What will little Bella need?' Emmett asked. He liked Bella, a lot, but I could tell he was upset that she wouldn't go near him. She physically shrank in on herself and cowered away when Emmett made his presence known. He hated that she shied away from him, but he knew that given enough time she would hopefully learn that he really was nothing but a giant teddy bear.

'Food,' A voice from the doorway interrupted our conversation. Our father stood in the doorway. 'I just looked around, its no wonder she's so malnourished, she's not had enough food to eat for weeks, I made a list for you guys,' He handed us the piece of paper. _Multivitamins, Calcium tablets, any food, bandages, aspirin, Penicillin, Medical Spirits, bottled water, and food seeds._

'Is this everything?' I asked, Carlisle shook his head.

'I would like to do a run to the hospital myself with you guys at some point in the future, I would like to stock up on medical supplies, but that's all I need for now.'

I handed Jasper the list, and I could hear him mentally calculating all the locations we would most likely need to go. Ever the strategist.

_I won't loose another one. She will live._

I decided to pretend that I had not heard Carlisle's thoughts, he was a ghost of the man he used to be. Watching all that death had piratically ripped him apart. I could understand his desperation to make sure this one human lived.

While my brothers got the cars ready I walked up to my room, following the sound of the faint heartbeat that was filling the whole house and the beautiful sent that accompanied it.

She was asleep on my bed, Esme was sitting next to the bed. They had put her in my room, and I don't know why but that really did please me. She was a vision, despite being unhealthy and underweight there was still something about her that took my breath away (well metaphorically, as I didn't have breath,) Her warmth, her life. Everything about this girl screamed that she was a fighter who had always survived. That alone was a quality that should be admired. Once she was healthy she would rival Rosalie in beauty. Maybe that was why Rose didn't like her, she never did like competition. In my mind though, there was no competition. She was amazing.

'She's really tired. Carlisle had a look at her ribs, looks like she took a bad fall, they're bruised. She needs a lot of care,' Esme informed me.

'We'll give it to her,' I replied without looking away from the beautiful face.

'Edward... are you... feeling something? For her?' Esme quickly asked. Esme had always been eager for me to find a mate, she wouldn't care if the person I found had webbed feet as long as I was happy.

'No, I just think she should be helped. She's human, this is her world and she needs protecting from the evil in it,' Without another word I turned and walked down the stairs.

_I can't be getting feelings for this girl, I've only just met her!_ But even I couldn't deny that pull I felt towards the girl. This was stupid! I hadn't even had a full conversation with Bella! How could I know if she was my mate or not by just looking at her? Anyway I would find a vampire as my mate one day, if I ever did find someone who truly did understand me. Most of the female vampires I had met in my travels had been vapid creatures, to busy with vanity to be able to hold a decent conversation.

Putting the whole thing out of my mind, I went to join my brothers, time to go to town.

**BPOV**.

I must have stepped into the twilight zone. These beautiful people just pop up out of nowhere looking like the Pandemic never happened, looking like the epitome of health. My head was still spinning just from meeting them. The entire family was utterly disarming. Esme, she was like a one woman peace mission. She had the ability to soothe anyone. I had no intention of speaking with these people but she just had this voice that made me want to comply with her.

It had been months since I had seen another person, and the people I had seen were feral and uncouth. Manners and decorum and long since been abandoned.

I had to shake myself when I first met them, I thought I must have been dead to have a family of seven in front of me, in perfect health, and to be polite and kind. The world just wasn't like that any more. The world had fallen into such a state of desolation. The only logical conclusion I could reach was that I had died and these people were angels here to take me away.

I had woken up on a soft luxurious bed. I had known that these beds were here, but I just didn't feel right sleeping in the bed of a dead person. Now I knew they weren't dead though, so I didn't feel quite that bad. My head hurt and the grumbling of my stomach was all to familiar. I couldn't remember when I last ate properly.

Esme waked in the door as I sat up.

'How are you feeling dear?' She asked in a concerned tone.

'Ok, I'm guessing I passed out?' Esme nodded.

'You're tired, Carlisle said that you should stay in bed and rest, the others will be back soon,'

'Back?!' I squeaked in a panicked voice, 'Where are they?!'

'They've just gone on a supply run to town, Bella, they'll be back in no time,'

'They can't go town! Its bad there, they'll get killed!' I jumped out of the bed. I regretted the action immediately as I was overtaken by another huge dizzy spell. Esme ran over to me, holding me up, guiding me to sit on the bed. I looked at her, eyes wide.

'They can't go there,' I told her weekly, I was shaking. I hardly knew these people but I would not wish upon anyone the fate that was waiting them in the town.

'Isabella,' Esme's voice was soft and firm. 'my children will be perfectly fine, we've been in worse situations and we've managed to come out unscathed. We are a strong family.'

I didn't question her. Another growl ripped through my stomach.

'When was the last time you had a meal, Bella?' She asked.

I grimaced. 'I don't remember, I ran out of food a while ago, I haven't ate a thing in two days,' Esme's eyes went wide. I shrugged. 'I wasn't going to risk looking for food.' Without another word the woman hugged me. The feeling of having contact with another person was overwhelming and I could feel my eyes start to water. Esme just held me tighter.

'We're going to help you, Bella, you're not on you're own any more,'

Yeh, now I was balling my eyes out.

**EPOV**

I thought that Michigan was bad. That was nothing compared to the chaos that was Forks. It became apparent that we would have to go into town on foot and run supplies back to the car which we parked on a road just on the edge of town.

'Welcome back, Spartans,' Emmett whispered, referring to the Forks high Spartans. We went to Forks high only a few years back and now, well not it looked like a bad zombie apocalypse town. There was fires burning everywhere in barrels and there was people. But not people like I'd ever seen them before.

We had just gotten into town when two idiots ran out at us holding guns, demanding that we give them everything we had or they'd kill us. Emmett out right laughed at the threat and even Jasper cracked a smile. Safe to say that we continued on fairly easily. We just knocked the two boys out. They had clearly been stealing off of everyone and thought that they owned this town.

Jasper went off on his own to one of the petrol stations to syphon some gas, while Emmett and I hit the first store we could find that had been untouched. The drug store. Surprisingly enough no one had managed to break into it yet. That probably had something to do with the huge iron shutters covering all the glass. Thankfully we had vampire strength and we were in in seconds.

'We've hit a gold mine!' Jasper whispered.

I nodded. A shop full and not ransacked was a real rarity now. Almost all shops had been torn apart by the last surviving few. Without another word I passed Jasper a duffel bag from one of the shelves and we started collecting all the medical supplies that Bella could possibly need. I managed to get all the medications that Carlisle had wrote down and many more. We would have quite the stockpile at home.

'Do you think we should empty the place? Take it all? The girl could use it,'

Jasper had a point. 'We'll need to so several trips,' Jasper cracked a grin grabbing the bag full of medications by my feet.

'Well its a damn good thing we're vampires then!'

Jasper was taking the first car load of medications back home when Emmett joined me. 'Got lucky, managed to get a lot of fuel. But its nasty out there! Two guys were beating this girl for no reason! I intervened, naturally but I couldn't stick around, she was bleeding.'

'Everywhere seems to be bad now, the world gone to hell,'

I was perusing the vitamin shelves, organising them all into some boxes that I had found out back to make them easier to move. I had a touch of OCD and was making sure everything in the box was packed in a neat and tidy order.

'Are you taking everything?' Emmett asked.

'Might as well, Bella could use it and we have plenty of room at home to store it.' Emmett joined in on the packing. Moving off to look at other shelves.

'Oooh! Titties!' He whooped after a moment I could hear him flicking through pages. I rolled my eyes, he had obviously found the male magazines. He would probably spend the next hour looking through them if I didn't intervene.

'Get packing before I stick Jasper on you're arse!' I yelled. 'And I'll tell Rose!' I added as an after though. He grudgingly got to work packing up some dried out foods that were still in date and collecting the massive bottles of water that were meant for water coolers. That would probably be enough water to last the little human a while. I had defiantly packed more vitamins that one tiny girl could ever need in her lifetime.

I ignored the screams of humans outside. I knew what was happening and I had no desire of getting involved. They were past saving, they had reverted to a primal state. The only thing worth saving was that small girl back at my house.

**I hope you guys like! R&R – Follow me on twitter WordsWithoutInk for story news, ask any questions and I will reply! **

**WWInk **


	4. Chapter 4

**Heya, sorry for the late upload. I've had some very nasty reviews and PM's in regard to my other story – WitSec-Shenanigans. A lot of swearing and generally people being rude and intolerate because I made sure there was a dilemma in my story! I was really hurt and upset by them. I don't mind constructive criticism, but there is a line. **

**Anyway! All I've got is love for this story, so enjoy it people!**

Bpov.

Why were they helping me? These people truly did seem unreal. They could have just as easily gotten rid of me, and made their own lives a lot easier, one less hungry mouth to feed and such. Instead they help me, and treat me like family. Did I mention my Twilight Zone theory before? Because I was sticking to that theory.

The shower, oh lord that shower. I had not had hot water in a long time, so when Esme shoved me upstairs to the shower room, revealing that there was hot water. I almost kissed the woman right there and then. Probably would have if I wasn't so terrified of her. Then, the cherry on this hot water cake – The shower itself was a huge jet pulse shower. I stood there looking at it for ten minutes just in heaven _thinking_ about the shower I was going to have.

Safe to say I felt cleaner than I had in a long time. It felt good to finally have my hair cleaned. The Cullen's must have been magicians. Within an hour of their arrival they had electricity, hot water and the heating running. Not a single one of them looked even slightly ill of health. They looked like they had stepped out of world Pre Apocalypse.

I know most referred to it as 'The Epidemic' but lets call a pot a pot – it was basically the apocalypse. They world was brought to a halt and a large portion of the worlds population died, and the few that lived, well I wouldn't exactly call it living.

I was still feeling faint when I was woken up by Esme. She made me sit in the front room in front of the giant ass TV watching – get this – _Finding Nemo_ yeh, we were watching a kids movie. I hadn't seen a working TV in so long that I just watched the entire film entranced. I cried when Nemo was taken away from his father though. That just brought back far to many bad memories. Esme didn't question my tears, she only sat next to me and hugged me throughout the whole scene.

It was near the end of the film from what I could remember when I felt myself drifting off again. I should really eat something soon. All I could do at the moment was sleep. Must be my body beginning to shut down.

I woke up a short time later, I could tell because we were nearing the end of the film, when Nemo makes it back into the ocean. I sat up curled the blanket tighter around me. Esme was sitting next to me, she didn't speak, but her presence alone was very comforting.

I could feel myself drifting off again when a voice called out 'Catch!' out of the corner of my eye I saw a bag of something fly towards me and land next to me.

It was a bag of dried berries. After Edward had assured me that they had plenty to go around I quickly ripped the bag open and dived in. I hadn't ate anything even resembling food in over a year. The sweet tangy taste made me moan with joy. My stomach felt like it was doing joyful summer-salts at the delicious food.

Before I even knew it I had ate the entire bag and was left longingly looking at the bottom.

EPOV.

It took several hours to get everything from the Drug Store back to the house. We stored it all in the garage, we had managed to develop quite the stockpile of medications and vitamins that even the most prolific hoarder would have been proud of.

I was packing one last box of bandages and plasters when Emmett and Jasper came back to collect them.

"Well it looks like we truly cleared the place out, did you manage to get everything on Carlisle's list?' Jasper asked, looking around the empty shelves. I nodded. The place did look like it had been completely emptied. There was only a few pill bottles hanging around. Luckily, I had got almost all of the items on the list from this one store alone.

"We need to find more food though, the energy bars that we found won't last that girl long, She'll need more soon enough," Jasper started casually walking through the store, keeping an eye out for anything we'd missed while still talking with me.

"Well we should find more food now, Ideally I don't want to be doing another run for a few more weeks. If it was just us we wouldn't need to do a run for months, but we'll be here lots with the girl, so I say get as much as we can now,"

He did have a point. "Where to next then?" I asked, sighing.

"There's several stores down the street. I say that we try there next. The Humans probably cleared it out in the early days but we might as well see if they left anything behind."

"Okay then, I'll run these back," I told him, indicating at the box near my feet. You go see if you can pull Emmett away from the magazines, he drifted back over there a while ago,"

It was easy enough to run home with a single box. I knew that my brothers were waiting for my but there was this pull in my chest, encouraging me to go into the house. So after grabbing a couple of the Energy bars, a bottle of water and a bag of dried berries I walked up into the house.

I smiled at the sight that met my eyes made me smile. Bella was curled up on the sofa, a blanket over her and my mother sitting next to her. I looked at the film that they were watching and my smile went wider. Beauty and the Beast, this girl clearly had a thing for Disney.

"Catch!" I called before throwing the berries towards her, she looked up shocked, and didn't catch them. They landed with a small thwump next to her.

Esme laughed, I walked up to Bella and handed her the water and the energy bars, she remained wide eyed.

"it's okay," I told her, "eat, we got plenty of food, I'm about to go back, we'll bring more,' I smiled at her. She clearly didn't need telling twice as she ripped into the bag of berries. The moan that left her throat as she ate the first few could have easily been classed as sex moans.

Lets just say that a certain part of my anatomy stood to attention at the sound. She made her way through that bag quickly and was left looking at the bottom with the a slight look of longing on her face. I smiled and tossed her the energy bars and bottle of water in turn. She dived right into them. An almost gleeful look on her face.

Esme was grinning at the sight of Bella enjoying her food. The colour was quickly returning to Bella's face, her eyes had a little bit more sparkle.

'Well we have to go back out, if we hit a few more places we'll be able to get lots more stuff.'

'Isn't it dangerous to go back out?' Bella asked in a quiet and timid voice.

I smiled at her, 'We're tough don't worry, we'll be fine,' I re-assured her.

She gave me a meek smile and nodded, turning her attention back to the food in front of her.

'Esme, there's more food in the basement if you need it,' Esme got straight up and made her way to the basement, I could tell from her thoughts that she wanted to go get more food for Bella.

I didn't bother to take a car back to the town, opting to run instead. It took me only minutes to run what would have been a thirty minute drive. Navigating the streets I followed my ears, listening out for either of my brothers. We had cleared the drug store out so now they were looking in different places for food. They had managed to get pretty much everything on the list other than food. So that's what we were on the search for.

Don't get me wrong, I could smell food, but all the produce had rotted. Food deliveries had stopped so long ago so all fruit and vegetables had long since decomposed. Bread and baked good had gone stale and moulded. Most the electricity had gone early on so all the frozen meats and such had gone bad as well. It was the canned good we had to keep an eye for, they had such a long shelf life and could last years.

Following what from what I could hear I was assuming was Jaspers noises, I found myself in a street full of large houses. This was clearly a well of area, or at least it was before the virus. The houses were still neat and tidy, so I assumed that they hadn't been looted yet. This particular street was a small distance away from the main town so they must not have reached here yet.

Jasper was in one odd random house, he had pretty much smashed the door down, I laughed at that. Now the house did look looted.

I found my brother sitting crossed legged in the pantry looking at various cans.

'I honestly cannot tell one food from the other!' He grumbled holding a can in each hand looking at them.

'As long as it looks like a type of food take it, Esme will be able to sort it out,' I started shifting through the canned food, there was a fair few cans, we packed them up and just moved through each house on the street. Some houses had nothing in them other than rotted food. Others had a few cans of soup and similar items that we grabbed. We also found things like flour. We got everything we could find I thought we would have enough stuff to make bread, which would be a nice treat for Isabella. She probably hadn't had any baked goods in months, if not years. It would also help Bella put on those extra pounds and stop her looking like such a skinny twig. The skin was stretched so tightly over her hipbones and ribs that she really did look sickly.

We also did a quick search through the houses for any other useful items. We found some batteries, some thick quilts and blankets. We only had a few blankets and quilts at the house because my family didn't really feel the cold. The blankets would be more than helpful for Bella though.

Emmett found us with the car and we took everything we had deemed useful and piled up and transported it all into the Jeep. We were creating quite the stock pile, the stuff we had gathered should last Bella a few weeks at the very least. Happy with the haul we made our way home. Emmett and Jasper were pretty much chomping at the bit to see their mates. Any time away from them tended to make them a little bit on edge. It must be nice, I thought, to have someone who cares about you so much that they didn't feel right or whole again until they were near you. I really had my doubts weather I would find my mate. I had been around much longer than Jasper and Emmett and they had both managed to find their mates before me.

Then again _they _didn't find their mates, their mates found them. Rose found Emmett after he was attacked by a bear, and Alice just skipped into Jasper's life because she could see that he was her future mate. So maybe it wasn't a question of when I found my mate, but when my mate would find _me_.

**R&R.**

**WWI**

**xx**


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